I haven't had the occasion to work outside the United States much. Canada is the lone exception, and I have probably spent a total of three months working in Canada. 

My tasks in Canada related to moving a technical support team from one set of standards to another. They were less than customer focused, so it was important to get them moving. The team was composed on Canadians, but I thought Canadians and Americans were basically the same. I was wrong.

The first time I realized this was during the meeting to get to know everyone. I was the lone American in the room, so the first time I heard someone pronounce about as aboot I chuckled to myself. Later during the meeting someone said, eh. At that point I was looking for someone to laugh with. Of course, no one else thought this was funny, and I learned that differences must be respected and not laughed about.

The second time cultural differences came to light was a lunch I attended with the team from Nanaimo. It was early 2002 and the United States was in a patriotic pitch. Somehow the conversation turned to patriotism and it became very uncomfortable for the Canadians at the table. I left lunch thinking that somehow Canadians don't love their country very much. Only later did I learn that most Canadians aren't comfortable with very exuberant displays of patriotism. 

So, the moral of the story is if you're traveling on business outside the United States you need to review this list of cultural differences to make sure you don't make any mistakes.  

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